LB/// 7 






1.812 



THE EDUCATION OF THE 
CHILD FROM ONE TO THREE 



PREPARKD BV 

THE LITERARY STAFF 

OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CHILD LIFE 



MONOGRAPH OF THE 

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CHILD LIFE 
Philadelphia 



Monograph 



./ 



/ 



UBhs7 

.As- 



This paper should be read in connection with another in this 
series, entitled "The Second and Third Years." 



MAR 18 i9}4 



COPYRIGHT, 1914 
AMKIICAN INSTITUTE OF CHILD LIFE 



^C' A 36 2 94 4 



THE EDUCATION OF A CHILD FROM ITS FIRST TO ITS 
FOURTH BIRTHDAY 

"I come in the little things, 

Saith the Lord: 

Not borne on morning wings 

Of majesty, but I have set my feet 

Amidst the delicate and bladed wheat, 

That springs triumphant in the furrowed sod. 

There do I dwell in weakness and in power; 

Not broken or divided, saith our God! 

In your strait garden plot I come to flower. 

About your porch My Vine, 

Meek, fruitful, doth entwine; 

Waits, at the threshold. Love's appointed hour. 

"I come in the little things, 

Saith the Lord: 

Yea! On the glancing wings 

Of eager birds, the softly pattering feet 

Of furred and gentle beasts, I come to meet 

Your hard and wayward heart. In brown, bright eyes 

That peep from out the brake, I stand confest. 

On every nest 

Where feathery Patience is content to brood 

And leaves her pleasure for the high emprize 

Of motherhood — 

There doth My Godhead rest." 

— Evelyn Under hill. 

The Parent as Educator — The Body — The Training of the Senses — Emotional 
Training — The Training of Instincts — Play and the Playroom — The Train- 
ing of Attention — The Training of Memory — Teaching to Talk — Teaching 
Hand Activities — Moral Training — The Importance of Home Educa- 
tion — Summary — References. 

It is hard to get some mothers to take their function as teachers 
in the nursery seriously. They argue that they would postpone educa- 
tion as long as possible, so as to keep their babies from growing up. 
Upon this excuse Mrs. Dorothy Canfield Fisher has put a most 
emphatic stamp of disapproval. She says : 

"Consider for a moment the real significance of the feeling 
expressed by the mothers we have all met, when they cry, *Oh, I can't 
hear to have the babies grow up!' and when they refuse to correct the 
pretty, lisping, inarticulate baby talk. I have been one of those moth- 
ers myself, and I certainly would have regarded as malicious and spite- 
ful any person who had told me that my feelings sprang from almost 
unadulterated egotism, and that I 'couldn't bear to have the babies grow 
up' because I wanted to continue longer in my complacent, self-assumed 
role of God, that I wished to be surrounded by little sycophants who, 
knowing no standard but my personality, could not judge me as any- 
thing but infallible, and that I was wilfully keeping the children granted 
me by a kind heaven as weak and dependent on me as possible, that 
they might continue to secrete more food for my egotism." 

Mothers, especially those who have read about the so-called "won- 



der children" that have lately been evolved and exploited and who are 
not at all desirous that their own children should be precocious, may 
be reassured by knowing that, while an intelligent and well-rounded 
nurture is likely to bring little children forward through the various 
grades of school in advance of most of those who are of their own age, 
such an advantageous purchase upon life, having nothing abnormal 
about it, may always be retained and enjoyed. The only essential is 
that whatever nurture we give shall be the exposure of the little human 
plant to sunlight and food rather than to some quick-lime forcing 
process. Mrs. Fisher says that when she was an intense, violent girl 
of seventeen she received some sound advice from a wise old doctor 
about how to lift some little children with whom she happened to be 
playing. "Don't take hold of their hands to swing them around !" he 
cried. "You cannot tell when the strain may be too great for their 
little bones and tendons. You may do them a serious hurt. Have 
them take hold of your hands !" There is a good deal of sound philos- 
ophy in this. Not our grasp of the passive children, but their active 
grasp of us is the helpful bond for their up-bringing. 

The Parent as Educator 

If the parent is to be a good teacher he must have the right attitude 
toward his child. There are three wrong attitudes, and there is only 
one right one. The three wrong attitudes are: That a child is a play- 
thing to be used for the pleasure or amusement of his parents and adult 
relatives ; that he is an object of compassion and therefore it to be 
perpetually indulged ; that he is to blame and therefore is at times to 
be punished. The right idea is that even a little child is a person. He 
has rights, needs and wants all his own. As Miss Helen Webb, of 
England, says : 

"The fact is that each child comes into this world an independent 
being. As soon as he has developed senses capable of feeling, seeing 
and hearing, he at once begins forming links, on . his own account, 
between himself and the whole world around him, and shows him- 
self as intelligent, or often much more intelligent, than the grown-up 
people he lives among. He is ready to observe and notice and reason 
and draw his own conclusions from everything he sees and hears, but 
as yet he is very ignorant, and extremely credulous ; and just for these 
very reasons, if for no others, he put us on our honor to be truthful 
and honest in all our dealings with him." 

The purpose of this essay is to show how this person may have 
his early rights and needs satisfied through the co-operation of his 
parents. 

The right attitude being taken for granted, the parent who is 
going to educate little children needs three other things. These are 
training, a plan and time. 

This is not the place to enlarge upon what constitutes an adequate 
trainmg for a young father or mother. Sufficient is it to say that any 
training is better than none, and that all the training a parent can get 
is not too much. The Institute, as a correspondence school for parents, 
is constantly engaged in endeavoring to give them adequate training. 



But have you a plan? Do you know what you want your children 
to develop into? If not, how are you going to help them develop? 
Perhaps the most important thing this essay can do is to stand in the 
immemorial struggle which goes on in so many homes, between the 
desire to bring up children by "mother instinct," and the duty of 
bringing them up by a plan, forever upon the side of the latter. The 
Institute's "Calendar of Childhood" is a standard summary of a good 
plan. Let us suppose that the life-plan which you have for your child 
embodies the following simple elements : A good, beautiful body 
capable of expressing the spirit, especially through the voice and the 
hand ; an intelligent, supple, open luind, able to master, to invent, to 
find resources and to enjoy itself ; a friendly, generous social nature, 
and a moral life both reverent and helpful. To build a life like this, 
building stones are needful. Our plan must have its specifications and 
go into each detail of the day's work. It is more trouble at the start 
to have a plan than to get along without one. It often takes a con- 
tractor longer to plan his house than to build it. but the man who lives 
in it afterward seldom has cause for complaint. It is more trouble in 
the beginning to pick up after a child than to train him to pick up 
after himself, but six months' practice in the latter will take the place 
of a lifetime of having somebody else pick up after him. So as to 
habits. Mr. G. Spiller is so businesslike that he suggests putting a 
time limit upon the formation of the habits. For example, he would 
give a week to training a child to be prompt at his meals, and having 
closed that chapter, he would inflexibly go on to the next. 

In order to execute a worthy plan for the benefit of a person who 
is as important as a child it is necessary that a mother should give 
some definite time to her task. Said Mrs. Wood-Allen : "It does 
involve a half hour, or an hour in most days, when the mother has 
occupations which will let her mind be given to the child. If she aoes 
the family mending, this is easy. If she does not, she will probably 
have to make time to be with the children. That is not difficult, or a 
great exaction, for she must have some way of knowing her own chil- 
dren, and the only way to do it is to share their occupations — to do 
something with them. Her choice is between doing something which 
they suggest, and doing something which she suggests. If she simply 
follows their suggestions, there is a single gain of friendship. If they 
do what she suggests, the gain is double ; not only she gains their friend- 
ship, but they gain new interests and powers." 

The Body. 

Mr. G. Spiller suggests the importance of attention to the bodily 
welfare of a little one by telling us that to give such attention is "to be 
just to the child." The just bodily rights which he names are these: 
"Proper food and sufficient healthy and regular exercise for its mind 
and body ; fresh air all day and night ; regular ablutions, warmth, play, 
rest and comfort." He gives this weighty assurance : "Danger is 
out of the question if you are just to your child on this and similar 
counts." He also goes into details and enumerates the following bodily 
rights of a little child : 



"(a) The child is to be put to bed at regular times, early, whilst 
awake, without anyone remaining with it, and without leaving a light 
behind in the room: 

"(b) It should rise at regular times, the amount of sleep being 
adjusted according to age; 

"(c) It should, health permitting, have its food and bath regularly 
in a regular place, and in a regular manner, not playing with the food 
nor having food between mealtimes; 

"(d) It should have at least twice a day, in very nearly all weath- 
ers, outdoor exercise or outdoor air for stated periods at set times (of 
at least one and a half hours) ; 

"(e) By the age of two and a half it should practically eat by 
itself, and begin to dress and wash itself ; 

"(f) It should not care to touch anything on the table, nor touch 
sticks, knives, forks, matches, lamps nor any class of object not 
already permitted, and it should not wish to ask for what others 
possess ; 

" (g) It should always have its hands and face clean before meals, 
and cleanliness and tidiness should be generally encouraged; 

"(h) It should ask for, or use, a handkerchief; 

"(i) Its natural wants should be, in health, satisfied at appointed 
and convenient intervals." 

Mr. Spiller supplements these rights by a similar catalog of con- 
ditions, which calls "The Simple Life for Children" : 

(a) The diet should be of the simplest kind — such as will be inex- 
pensive and nourishing, while not overburdening or disordering the 
digestive organs. 

(b) Sweetmeats should be reduced to a secondary place, i. e., 
taken after meal times as part of meals (where they are essential), but 
not "before or in the place of the proper meal. 

(c) The child's bed must be hygienic, so as to propiote in time 
hardihood or sturdiness. 

(d) It should not always sit on people's laps, or be carried about, 
or be constantly attended to. It should tend to be independent of 
others' help, and by the age of two and a half self-amusement and 
self-activity should be highly developed. Being with the child without 
all the time attending to it, and placing the child so that it cannot read- 
ily see its guardian, will in obstinate cases tend to encourage inde- 
pendence of others. 

(e) Its dress should be simple, neat, tasteful and serviceable. Exer- 
cise should not be hampered by the consideration of spoiling fine 
clothes. 

(f) It should find its happiness in health, in play, in being active 
and in contact with nature. 

Since the matter of bodily care is dealt with in another mono- 
graph in this series, these suggestions may be sufficient, if we complete 
them by some which have been made by Dr. J. M. Tyler in his 
"Growth and Education." We may, therefore, continue our enumera- 
tion as follows : 

(g) The child should have proper clothing, especially that which 
protects a large amount of surface from exposure. "The trunk of a 



child may be in a Turkish bath of flannels while his legs and arms 
freeze." 

(h) The child should have plenty of pure air, not damp and not 
excessively dry. 'Tt is a good deal to expect of a baby that he will 
thrive in an atmosphere where fairly tough plants die." 

(i) The more sunshine the better, and the proper temperature. 
"Every plant has its own special temperature which is necessary for its 
most rapid growth. Wherever man may have originated, the tempera- 
ture for a baby is surely not that of the Desert of Sahara." 

(j) A child should be protected from nervous instability. He 
constantly responds to conditions in his surroundings. He is imitative 
almost as soon as he can notice. "He is remarkably amenable to sug- 
gestion ; he is intensely impressible." "Every impression on the 
nervous system modifies its growth and influences its mature con- 
dition." 

The Training of the Senses 

Perhaps the most distinct advantage that is claimed for the 
Montessori method is its success in making little children sense spe- 
cialists. Much of the so-called "didactic apparatus" of Madame 
Montessori is of value in the nursery, and, it is an encouragement to 
add, the most valuable portions of it are the least expensive and can 
easily be contrived by the parent. The famous dressing frames can 
be fashioned out of pieces of old garments attached to slate frames. 
The blocks, the color boxes, the materials for testing rough and smooth, 
the geometric insets and the alphabet can all be made at home. The 
mother's piece bag is a better "fabric box" than the Italian one. There 
is a danger, which Dr. Gesell points out, in thinking education is 
dependent upon formal apparatus. "The majority of children find 
ample opportunity in their daily domestic excursions to handle various 
forms, to touch hard, soft, smooth and elastic surfaces. The baby 
crawling on the floor begins to run his fingers over the carpet, the 
furniture, the soft dress mother wears, her hair, etc. He plays by the 
hour with this thing and that, unconsciously assimilating and sifting, 
enjoying and comparing a multitude of impressions, very many of 
which cannot be incorporated even with the most elaborate apparatus. 
Why take such natural experiences and reduce them to a series of self- 
conscious impressions, bringing in a lot of unnecessary paraphernalia? 
We must make use of the bountiful experience and phenomena of 
everyday life and not construct a series of boxed experiences, making 
no useful whole?" 

The nursery then is the place where the expression, "Don't touch !" 
should almost never be used, but where every day there should be con- 
secutive and informal opportunities to feel different materials, touch 
objects of different sizes, shapes and smoothness, and to combine them 
together by all sorts of extemporaneous building devices. Here, too, 
is the place for regular excursions around the room with the child, so 
that he may see certain things for himself — the pictures on the wall, 
the windows and doors, the colors in the carpets and the playthings 
for the day. Out-of-doors is an even better place for exercising the 
sense of sight and learning to judge sizes, to discriminate distances and 



to see color. Looking out of the window is an instructive amusement 
for even a little child. A writer in the "Foundation Library" says : 

"Suppose the nursery window looks out upon a busy street. There 
the chUd will see the policeman on duty, the electric car passing, the 
mail man, the express wagon, the grocery team, perhaps the fire engine 
on its way to save houses and, it may be, people's lives. There is a 
shoemaker's store nearby, and a little farther on the dry goods store 
and market. The mother here has an opportunity to emphasize her 
dependence upon all of these people, and also their dependence upon 
her, and to lead the child to realize the true dignity and value of labor. 
The child may be led to notice the sky, the clouds, the sunbeams dancing 
through the windows, showers of rain, the whistle of the wind, the 
beauty of the snowflakes, the frost pictures on the window pane and 
twinkling of the stars." 

It is also helpful to bring some of the brightness of out-of-doors 
into the house. Says Nora A Smith : "A prism hung in the window 
to make 'light-birds' on the wall is always a joy to the children, and 
one of the oddest and prettiest effects in the world is obtained by 
hanging or fastening to the windowpane a plate of glass which has 
been made into what is technically known as a grating. This is pro- 
duced by scratching upon the surface thousands of fine lines parallel 
and almost touching. When the light falls upon it, it is refracted and 
broken into its elements so as to throw rainbow halos and splendors 
in every direction. If hung in the direct sunlight, the blaze of color 
is almost too brilliant for comfort." 

There should also be regular culture of the sense of hearing. 
While it is too early for definite music instruction, it is not too soon 
to teach the child to keep his voice gentle. Mrs. Mary Wood- Allen 
says : "The time to teach the correct use of the speaking voice is while 
he is learning to talk," and she adds, "Sing to him, play to him, see 
how soon he will sing a musical sound after you ; sing the scale often 
or play it ; play and sing the intervals ; encourage him to imitate you." 
We may also make use of the sensitiveness which most children have 
to music as early as this by giving them contrasting note sounds — 
high and low, loud and soft, fast and slow. Of course, children like 
other noises, the ticking of the clock, the sounds different animals 
make and noises which they can make themselves. A child has a 
right to bang a tin pan now and then, beat a drum, hammer with a 
stick, blow a tin trumpet and shout out loud. We have also the op- 
portunity to make the ear sensitive by training in listening. "A large 
number of Montessori devices," says Mrs. Fischer, "if they were not 
called 'sensory exercises,' would be recognized as merely fascinating 
new games for children. What is blind-man's buff but a 'sensory- 
exercise for training the ear,' since what the person who is 'It' does 
is to try to catch the slight movements made by the other players 
accurately enough to pursue and capture them? Children have an- 
other game called, for som.e mysterious reason of childhood, 'Still 
pond, no more moving !' a variety of blind-man's bluff, which trains 
still more finely the sense of hearing, since the players are required to 
stand perfectly still, and the one who is 'It' must detect their presence 
by such almost imperceptible sounds as their breathing, or the rustling 



caused by an involuntary movement. If Montessori herself had in- 
vented this game, it could not be more perfectly devised for bodily 
control." One of the most impressive exercises in Madame Montes- 
sori's "House of Childhood" is that by which she gives room for what 
she calls "the lesson in silence." The playroom is gradually made 
absolutely quiet, each person being motionless. The shutters are 
darkened and the children sit in the attitude of prayer. The purpose 
is the double one of relaxation and of developing the power of medi- 
tation. There is power in silence, and quiet listening to the sounds of 
Nature and of music helps in forming a child's disposition. 

Emotional Training. 

Perhaps the most important single opportunity which we have 
in training the emotions is that of helping the child to conquer those 
fears which grow poignant as soon as the child's imagination develops 
to make them possible. Too many of the fears of childhood are, how- 
ever, acquired from the antipathies of adults. Says Kirkpatrick : "If 
the persons around him show fear of worms, insects, snakes, darkness, 
lightning, etc., he shares their feelings and may in later life be unable 
to overcome his timidity and repugnance, although he knows there is 
absolutely no basis in reason or fact for such feelings. No doubt, 
many characteristics often supposed to be instinctive or inherited, are 
the result of emotional attitudes produced by the actions of others 
during this period of great susceptibility to social influences." On the 
other hand, nothing can do more than the courageous resistance of 
fear on the part of a parent to give a child a sense of confidence in 
her mother which shall prove secure and lasting. Also, for the culti- 
vation of love nothing counts more than what has been called "the 
therapeutic value of a mother's caress" at such times, which, as the 
same person says, "is the only soothing syrup ever needed." 

"Assume that your child has no fear," says Mrs. Hallam, "and, 
so far as possible, act upon that basis. Never ask your child if he 
is afraid. If it is necessary for you to send him into a dark room to 
bring you something, do not let the thought of fear enter your mind 
or his. You know there is nothing that will hurt him and you should 
take it for granted that he also knows it. Perhaps the imaginative 
child may create his own fears. When this happens, insist that he tell 
you definitely what he is afraid of. Often the object of his fear is 
imaginary, and when brought out into the daylight will disappear. For 
example, the child hears the water dripping in the bathroom and thinks 
it is a person trying to get into the house. He hears a tree branch 
sweeping against the house and thinks it is a bear. Take the child in 
where he can see and hear the water dripping at the same time. Show 
him the tree in the daylight. One mother quieted her child's incipient 
dread of 'bears' by telling her that if there were a bear prowling about 
the house or neighborhood, it must be a tame one, which has escaped 
from a show, as the wild ones had been driven away long ago. Of 
course, the owner would be looking for it and would pay a large sum 
of money to anyone who would catch it for him. 'We will watch and 
see if we can't get it to come into our shed and keep it for the owner. 
Then the owner will like us, besides giving us the money.' " 

9 



In his sensible little book, "Our Boy," Mr. Harry Edwards Bar- 
tow gives us his philosophy of the place of fear and anger in a child's 
life and then proceeds to tell how he dealt with the latter in the case 
of his little boy: "Both fear and anger were protective instincts in 
primitive man. When the danger was too great for him to cope with, 
fear drove him from it ; but when there was a possibility of mastering 
it, anger urged him to fight in defense of his rights and property. Our 
baby inherited an instinctive anger, which both the mother and I laugh- 
ingly blamed on the race rather than on ourselves. He was always 
ready to quarrel with what did not please him. He scolded long be- 
fore he could talk, and the 'Ah,' which indicated temper, was the ex- 
pression he retained longest in infancy. In fact, it became a serious 
problem how we should break him of 'Ahing' and striking, without 
utterly destroying the instinctive anger which he would need later in 
order to fight a man's battles. To inflict corporal punishment for it 
only drove him into a frenzy and increased his lack of control ; while, 
to ignore it entirely would permit the development of an unreasonable 
and uncontrolled combativeness, which would set him at enmity with 
every one. If he 'Ahed' at mother, I caressed her and would not play 
with a boy who was so rude to her ; if he 'Ahed' at his baby, we took 
it from him and loved and spoke kindly to it ; if he 'Ahed' at children 
who came to play with him, he was taken out of the game. It was 
a long and hard process before he learned that uncontrolled anger 
brought him some loss." 

The Training of Instincts. 

Bright, indeed, is the mother who recognizes her constant op- 
portunities to encourage education through the instinct of curiosity. 
It requires common sense rather than a college education, in order 
to see all our opportunities. Mrs. Fisher gives an instance of a quick- 
witted employment of such an opportunity by a washwoman of her 
acquaintance: "When the first of my neighbor's children was a little 
over three, his mother found him, one hot Tuesday, busily employed 
'folding up,' that is, crumpling and crushing the fresh shirtwaists, 
which she had just laboriously ironed smooth. She snatched them 
away from him, as any one of us would have done, but she was nimble- 
witted enough to view the situation from an impersonal point of view, 
which few of us would have adopted. She really 'observed' the child, 
to use the Montessori phrase ; she put out of her mind with a conscious 
effort her natural, extreme irritation at having the work of hours 
destroyed in minutes, and she turned her quick mind to an analysis of 
the child's action, as acute and sound as any the Roman psychologist has 
ever made. Not that she was in the least conscious of going through 
this elaborate mental process. Her own simple narration of what follow- 
ed runs : 'I snatched 'em away from him and I was as mad as a hornit 
for a minit or two. And then I got to thinkin' about it. I says to 
myself. He's so little that 'tain't nothin' to him whether shirtwaists are 
smooth or wrinkled, so he couldn't have taken no satisfaction in bein' 
mischievous. Seems 's though he was wantin' to fold up things, 
without really sensin' what he was doin' it zvith. He's seen me fold 

10 



things up. There's other things than shirtwaists he could fold, that 
wouldn't do no harm for him to fuss with. And I set the iron down 
and took a dish towel out'n the basket and says to him, where he set 
cryin', ''Here, Buddy, here's sometliin' you can fold up." And he set 
there for an hour by the clock, foldin' and unfoldin' that thing.' " 

Mrs. Annie Winsor Allen says : "Any interested mother with 
the right implements can put her child in the way of these good be- 
ginnings. She has only to give her child the chance of being interested 
in desirable things, and then to encourage curiosity, imitation, and 
experiment by her ready interest and sympathetic admiration, along 
with plenty of cheerful helping. She will find they learn in a most 
curious way, by pauses anl leaps. She gives them the clue and then 
lets them draw out the thread ; lets them follow the trace themselves, 
threading the labyrinth with all its surprises, and arriving alone and 
triumphant at the center. Being taught actually hampers the rapidity 
of personal thought. A child well started learns many things fastest 
by itself." 

Here is where comes one of the permanent values of the Mon- 
tessori system. Madame Montessori believes that every time we do 
something for our nursery child that he can do for himself, we are 
robbing him of the opportunity of growing stronger. She says : "Who 
does not know that to teach a child to feed himself, to wash and dress 
himself is a much more tedious and difficult work calling for infinitely 
greater patience than feeding, washing and dressing the child one's 
self ? But the former is the work of an educator, the latter is the easy 
and inferior work of a servant. Not only is it easier for the mother, 
but it is very dangerous for the child, since it closes the way and puts 
obstacles in the path of the life." 

When Mother Carey, in Mrs. Wiggins' charming story, was 
accused of "always making new beasts out of old," she replied : "So 
people fancy, but I am not going to trouble myself to make things, 
my little dear. I sit here and make things make themselves. Any 
one can make things if they will take time and trouble enough ; but it 
is not everyone who, like me, can make things make themselves." But 
people do not yet believe that Mother Carey is as clever as all that 
comes to. 

At this period the behavior of adult people makes its life impress 
upon' little ones, for so close is their hnitafion that a child reflects 
everything around him that people do and say in so far as he can. Lit- 
erally, everything is "catching." And this is a supremely important fact, 
so much so that Mr.W. B. Drummond says : "If the child is the heir of 
all the ages, it is only by imitation that he can enter on his inheritance." 
We now have the opportunity, therefore, to help the child in many ways 
and, of course, in no way more than by offering him good examples to 
imitate. Even in the practice of handling toys there is some choice as 
to the right method. Madame Montessori has all manipulations made 
by a hand gesture from left to right, because this correct gesture helps 
to prepare the children to write properly. Mrs. Wood-Allen urges 
that the child now be allowed to do particularly those things which 
will be permanent satisfactions, like painting, sewing, digging, etc. 
"Let him take the implements and try to imitate you ; let him get the 

11 



'feel' of them before you try to teach him the very best methods." 
The child may now actually have his small part in helping in small 
duties of the household; a broom to sweep with, a small dust-pan to 
take up dust, dusting small articles of furniture, helping to make the 
bed, helping mother cooking by beating eggs, rolling out dough, etc. 
Mrs. Wood-Allen gives this charming description to illustrate this 
instinct for helping: 

"Among her Christmas gifts little Lois Barrows has received a 
broom and dust-pan. She sees with great delight her mother's 
preparation for the next sweeping day and runs to find her implements. 

" 'I can help sweep, mamma,' she exclaims joyfully, as she begins 
flirting her broom vigorously over the carpet. 

" 'Yes, dear,' replies Mrs. Barrows, who believes her child to be 
of more importance than things. 'You can help if you will do just 
what mamma wants you to. First, you can take these books and put 
them on the sofa as mamma dusts them.' 

"With shining eyes and a feeling of great importance at being 
mamma's helper, little Lois carries the books. 'What next, mamma?' 
she asks. 

" 'Now you can help me put the sheets over the furniture.' 

" 'Why do you do that?' queries the child, as she straightens out 
the sheet over the sofa. 

" 'To keep the dust off,' answers Mrs. Barrows. 'Now we'll open 
the windows and then you can go and sweep the porch while I sweep 
here. Let us see which can sweep her room best.' 

"By this ruse she gets the child out of the dust of her sweeping, 
but does not deprive her of the privilege of helping. Occasionally she 
goes to the door to oversee the sweeping of the porch and to make 
encouraging suggestions. 

" 'Can I help dust, mamma?' asks Lois. 

" 'Yes, dear, here is a cloth, and this is the way to dust a chair. 
You see, it will help mamma a great deal if you do it well, for then she 
won't have to stoop so much.' 

"The child is really anxious to do her work right, and soon 
learns to see the dust and remove it, to shake her dust cloth out of 
doors, as mamma does, and surveys her finished work with great 
pride. Her eyes glow under her mother's just commendation. 'I'm 
your little helper, ain't I, mamma?' 

" 'Indeed you are and always will be.' " 

"We can make use," says Mrs. Mumford, "of his natural desire 
to be helpful. A small child will put his bricks in the box, his train 
in the corner, his coat in the cupboard, he will fetch and carry for us 
in the nursery, under the impression that he is helping us, and is, 
therefore, an important little person. Tidiness as a duty makes no 
special appeal to him ; but he loves to lend a helping hand. By 
working up this desire, we get a good start in the direction of the 
habit we wish to instill — just as by working on the child's desire to 
be manly, we persuaded him to use every effort to put on his own 
boots. We did not have to command these actions to be done, be- 
cause we are able to establish their connection with th,e child's 
natural desires. Repeated opportunities for the exercise of such 
desires gradually produce the habit." 

12 



Children may also be trained in higher imitations through the 
behavior of parents, brothers and sister, in low tones of voice, 
politeness to one another, pleasantness, bright cheerfulness of ex- 
pression, etc. 

By the time the child is two and a half years old he begins to 
shov/ imaginativeness, and his imitation now takes a new turn. He 
gives new and poetic meanings to old objects of play. The more 
meager the apparatus, the more scope there seems to be for the play 
of imagination, "The sweetest craft that slips her moorings on the 
Round Pond, is what is called a stick boat," writes J. M. Barrie, 
"because she is rather like a stick, until she is in the water and you are 
holding the string. Then as you walk round pulling her, you see 
little men running about her deck, sails rise magically and catch the 
breeze, you put in on dirty nights at snug harbors which are unknown 
to lordly yachts. Night passes in a twink and again your rakish craft 
noses for the wind, whales spout, you glide over buried cities, and 
have brushes with pirates, and cast anchor on coral isles * * * 
You always wanted to have a yacht * * * j^ ^^g g^d your uncle 
gives you one * * * but soon you like to leave it at home * * * 
Those yachts have nothing in their holds. It is the stick-boat that is 
freighted with memories. The yachts are merely toys." 

When English children in a nursery were given Madame Mon- 
tessori's "geometric insets," which look so much like scale weights, 
they at once pronounced them to be ginger beer bottles and began to 
play with them as such. The whole situation became alive, full of 
interest, with the quick adaptation of means to ends, fun, chatter and 
a warm human interest. It is a defect of the Montessori system 
that the imagination is nowhere recognized. That is, "pegs" are 
never more than "pegs in holes," and the dressing frames were never 
more than strings on cloth. "This apparatus does satisfy the three- 
year-old child's mechanical activity, but it does not lead on to con- 
structive activity. What shall we say to a system for the develop- 
ment of our child which has no place for stories?" Now is the time 
to attach a story to every game. We should encourage the child also 
in the telling of his own quaint little fancies and never laugh at him 
when he expresses himself in this way. The best helps to the develop- 
ment of fancy are picture books and stories. 

Imagination may be made a strong factor in the government of 
children at this age. The mother can always find some natural impulse 
of fancy which she can make use of as a motive force to action. Mr. 
Bartow says : "The game I liked best was to pretend that I was the 
little boy and he the father. Even in this game, where we exchanged 
personalities, he did not allow me to lead. I must be the kind of little 
boy he said and must do as he directed. How very careful he was 
of me as he put me to bed on the couch, or took me for a ride on the 
big rocking chair, or for a walk into the next room. I liked the game 
because, I prized his caress, and because he unconsciously learned 
many lessons of thoughtfulness and kindness." A writer in Practical 
Motherhood gives an instance of the diversion of obstinacy 
through imagination. " T cannot go to bed,' said Helen, the de- 
cided, T am going to Chicago to see grandma, and the train is wait- 
ing.' Instantly the mother replied : 

13 



" 'The Chicago sleeping coach is on the south track, Helen, and 
here,' with a wave of her hand toward nurse Mary, 'is the porter to 
say that your berth is ready.' 

" 'Is that so?' said the interested Helen. 'Why I almost took the 
wrong train, What a re-scape !' " 

"And, with happy good nights and promises of speedy return, 
the radiant Helen departed via the south bedroom for the Chicago 
sleeper. The father looked on and laughed. Nevertheless, he 
offered his word of wisdom. 

" 'You cater too much to that child's imagination, Nell. You ought 
to exact instant obedience.' 

" 'She did not disobey,' said the satisfied mother, cheerfully. 'I 
would rather have obedience without exaction, if possible, and since 
imagination is one of our faculties, why should it not be used to help 
us over hard places sometimes?' " 

Mrs. Mumford makes a practical suggestion : "Suppose the little 
lad longs to be a soldier, or to be a man like his father. Mother 
can then make him realize that manhood is out of the question while 
she has to put on his boots ! What soldier before he went to battle, 
what father before he went to business ever had any one put on his 
boots for him? In this way she associates with the sight of the boots 
the thought that it is manly to put them on alone ; the desire to become 
manly is strong in the boy, strong enough to overcome difficulties and 
lead to action. He therefore makes the necessary effort ; once made, 
owing to the Law of Habit, it is easier to make the effort a second 
time; and gradually the demand upon his attention becomes less and 
less, until the boots are put on automatically, and the habit has been 
formed." She also suggests an ingenious method of encouraging the 
establishment of regular physical habits by a system of rosettes and 
flags by which the child is honored for such fidelity. Further sug- 
gestions in this direction of government through imagination are 
available in our pamphlet chapter entitled "The Dramatic Instinct in 
the Home." 



Play and the Play-Room 

The less elaborate the fittings of the nursery are the better. Miss 
Nora A. Smith makes the following suggestions : 

"A cork or hemp rug for the floor that will deaden sound a little 
and provide warmth, yet can be taken up and thoroughly cleansed, a 
hammock or an old couch with a washable cover, a few low chairs, 
stools, and tables suitable for Lilliputian legs, and that is all. If the 
handy father will fashion a rough cupboard for each child, or arrange 
shelves for each, with curtains, or even nail packing boxes to the floor, 
with the covers securely fastened in as shelves, the happy possessors 
of the room will not envy even the infant Prince of the Asturias. And 
why should they? What does any reasonable human being want more 
than light and space, warmth and air, a place to store his few pos- 
sessions, and room enough to work out his ideas?" 

And in the middle of this room Mr. Joseph Lee asks us to put a 
pen. "At this time of life I think the most useful adjunct of the 

14 



baby's existence is a pen — not to write with, but to live in. Certainly 
in my own experience I have found that the pen is mightier than the 
nurse — at least in producing a contended mind. Ours was five feet 
square by about twenty-six inches high, a good height to stand and 
hold on by and to shake. It had a bottom of some water-proof ma- 
terial, buttoned on at the corners, that was good after a rain, espe- 
cially on grass, and made it easier to move all one's worldly pos- 
sessions at once. The pen has a most interesting physiological effect 
in the direction of contentment. Children seem willing to spend 
hours and hours playing in it when they will soon get fussy if left 
outside. Often even after a child who has been running all over the 
playground or the room has already become tired and cross, he will, 
if taken up and put inside the pen, quiet down and play contentedly, 
singing to himself. There is evidently something about an insuper- 
able, and therefore accepted, limitation that is very soothing to the 
childish mind." 

As to the articles for play. President Stanley Hall, commenting 
upon the kindergarten gifts, says: "The great faults of the gifts and 
occupations are not only that there are hundreds of other things that 
would do as well ; but I am convinced that two or three score could 
easily be found that possess great natural advantages over most, if 
not all, of these. Moreover, they deal with inanimate objects and too 
mathematical conceptions, while this is the age when the child's in- 
terest in animals culminates. They are also overemphasized, and 
idolatry of the ball, cube, slats, pricking, peawork, and the rest makes 
the kindergartener not only indifferent to new departures in the rapid 
development of recent times, but so suspicious of novelties that new 
gifts or occupations have to overcome a great presumption against 
them." And he adds: "Much might be said in favor of the color top, 
peg board, soap bubbles, and such old plays as jackstraws and knuckle 
bones. Sorting out very heterogeneous blocks and cards, and laying 
like to like, might be tried ; while popcorn, play with chalk, shells, 
spools, pictures — perhaps cut and pasted milkweed pods, potato work, 
possibly the whip, and all possible contact with animate life should 
be carefully developed — always remembering that the child's interest 
in animals culminates before that in flowers or trees, and that the 
latter reaches its apex before interest in inanimate things." Mr. Lee 
agrees that almost anything will be put to use by the child. 

"They want to handle the universe and get used to it, and almost 
any object is material for investigation or adventure. One child whom 
I was talking with about the resources of her backyard, said, "Well, 
you see we are very lucky, because we have barrels." I could see that 
the condition was a fortunate one; but I did not at first perceive 
exactly what form the good fortune assumed, until she continued: 
"You see there is a little bank, and we get inside the barrels and roll 
down." Of course she was, as she had stated, an unusually fortunate 
young woman ; but I think if it had not been a bank, it would have 
been some institution equally remunerative." 

Speaking of banks, Mr. Lee says : 

"Above all, he likes to run down any kind of a bank; and the 
best is, of course, the one that makes a noise when he does it, such 

15 



as may be produced by tilting a board up on the sand-box on one end. 
Having, as I supposed, invented this not very complicated piece of 
apparatus, and introduced it on our playground, I was both disap- 
pointed (because of the vanished opportunity for a world-patent) 
and gratified to learn that it was adopted by the Japanese in their in- 
stitution for soldier's children. I had my board hooked on the sand- 
box, so that it would not slip oif and be a cause of grief. But any ob- 
ject on a playground, like any new institution elsewhere in the social 
fabric, is apt to produce other consequences than those foreseen. A 
board, whether supervisory, executive, or otherwise inclined, may be 
put to uses not intended by its designer Ours, with one end on a 
chair, served as a bridge, as a boat, and — in conjunction with another 
board, with a gate that had become unhinged, and other objects of 
bigotry and virtue — as a sleigh for Santa Claus. Also it gives very 
good results when laid across one of the rollers of the sand-box so 
that the end hangs down when you run across it. Also it makes one 
side of a coast. For as soon as the snow comes, we shut the sand- 
box, roll it to one end of the piazza (with its back to the sun so as to 
minimize melting), pile the snow up on it, and make a coast. The 
last day of coasting we open it again and it re-enters on its office as a 
sand-box. 

Miss Smith says : "It is most interesting, and shows the need 
children feel for large toys, to see their joy in playing with wash- 
boilers, coal-hods, waste-baskets, stoves, chairs, and various other 
domestic articles apparently quite unsuited to their size and require- 
ments. We commonly take them away from the baby, under the im- 
pression, not even dispelled by his wails, that he does not know what 
he wants, and present him instead with a rubber cat that squeaks or 
an ivory rattle hung with bells. The possibilities of these small and 
uninteresting articles are soon exhausted, and baby wails afresh for 
that big and satisfactory waste-basket that could be handled, tumbled 
about, inverted on his head, and even crawled into. Psychologists are 
telling us now that the larger motor activities, those of the arm and 
forearm, are developed before the smaller ones of the hand and 
fingers, and some of the kindergarten materials are being increased in 
size to meet the child's need in this respect. Let us remember the 
new knowledge and try to select playthings in accordance with it." 

Besides the articles for regular use. Miss Smith suggests that 
"There should also be a mother's cupboard or closet in the playroom 
containing special playthings for great occasions, such as birthdays, 
holidays, days of convalescence or incipient invalidism, days when 
the wind is in the east, everybody's temper short, and hands likely to 
be raised against neighbors. To this retreat toys unappreciated or 
maltreated must be returned till a better mind comes to their owners, 
work neglected and left lying about must retire for a season, and any 
special article, become a bone of contention, withdrawn till its com- 
mon owners agree to share it in peace. Here, too, the mother will 
keep her stores of pencils, black and colored ; her sheets of white and 
brown wrapping paper, cut in suitable sizes and pressed smooth; her 
paste-board, buttons, spools, chalks, tin, cardboard and wooden 
boxes; her ends of string, tinfoil, picture magazines, catalogues — 

16 



anything and everything, in fact, which will serve as fuel for the 
great play-engine." 

And now, having equipped the play-room, what shall we play? 
This essential thing is that we ourselves should really play. Epictetus 
was a philosopher wise enough to see that we must actually enter into 
the joys of our children. He said: "When children come to us clap- 
ping their hands and saying, 'Tomorrow is the good feast of Saturn,' 
do we tell them that good does not consist in feasting? No — but we 
clap our hands along with them." A young woman told her mother 
that the sweetest memory of her childhood was the single afternoon 
when the mother got down on the floor and played dolls with her 
little daughter. The resourceful and skillful play of the mother on 
that single afternoon had never been forgotten. The mother, of 
course, was brought by her daughter's confession to a realization of 
the thousands of splendid opportunities for companionship and edu- 
cation which she had lost. 

Some of our play may consciously be intended to train the child. 
A sensible article in "The Foundation Library" gives the following 
suggestions : "First, let us take the most universal of playthings, the 
ball, and roll it back and forth, finally introducing the signal, 'One, 
two, three, roll !' Stand a tall block or tenpin on the floor and roll the 
ball to knock it down. Place a nickel call bell on the floor and roll the 
ball to make it ring. 

"If you have the kindergarten balls you will be ready for some 
ball plays. First, learn the colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, 
violet, one at a time, and match them to articles of the same color in 
the nursery, such as draperies, wall paper, rugs, mother's dress or 
sister's hair ribbon. Put six balls in a row and ask the child to shut 
his eyes. You take one ball away, and ask the child to open his eyes 
and tell which ball is gone. Hide all the balls and let the child bring 
them to your lap, name the balls over and see if there is one missing, 
and if so, name that. Hide a ball and call out 'hot', 'cold', 'burning', 
as the child goes toward or away from the ball. 

"Let the child hunt for his lunch cracker in the same way. 

"Try to toss the ball in the air, and catch it, using the signal, 'One, 
two, three, toss !' Toss the ball to some one else, then throw and 
bound ball, then make a ring with twine on the rug or chalk on the 
floor and roll ball into it. 

"A pretty game may be played with the waste-paper basket 
placed in the center of the room. If there are a number to play, all 
the better. Each one is given a colored ball and told to wait for the 
signal, 'One, two, three, throw !' All throw at once, but stand still to 
see where the balls go. The mother then invites some one to go to 
the basket and see if any balls have gone in, and count them as they 
are taken out one at a time. The signal then may be given to pick the 
balls up and begin over again. There will be no confusion if the 
mother is particular in regard to the signals of the game." 

One readily sees how attention, altertness, patience, agility, and 
the exercise of sight, touch and hearing all come through these simple 
plays. It is just as feasible to use some of the tools of education in 
play as anything else. Here is a group of suggestions from Mrs, 
Allen : 

17 



"A child of two likes to learn to count as part of learning to talk. 
Encourage this, but try to make ten the stopping place, until he has 
learned so far thoroughly. At about three years old begin to count 
things. He will probably understand already how many three is. 
Count things at the table ; count beads, blocks, etc., at any time you 
happen to think of it. Now and then see if he can count them. If 
he can, show your pleasure. Supply alphabet blocks, with pictures, 
as early as two years old. Call the letters by name often in playing 
with the child. Play games with them; e. g., turn all the pictures 
down and guess what picture is under each letter, etc. To a child of 
three, sing the alphabet." 

A great deal of the play of children of this age is by themselves 
and consists of the exercise of the instinct of curiosity by repeated 
experiment. Some of the things which a little child likes to do with 
things are : turning keys in locks, opening and shutting doors, open- 
ing and shutting drawers, opening and shutting boxes, pouring things 
out of a bag and putting them back, taking things out of a drawer and 
putting them in again, playing with water, playing out in the rain, 
making soap suds in warm water, playing under the hose with a bath- 
ing suit on. 

Some suggested articles for utilizing this experimental faculty in 
children are these : 

Nest of boxes for opening and shutting and closing inside one 
another ; 

Big blocks to pile one on top of another and knock down. The 
child is too young for building yet. 

Special drawer with key where he may keep miscellaneous things 
to take in and out, such as : pieces of cloth and felt, pieces of paper, 
pictures to cut out, little odds and ends, a few boxes of such things as 
seeds and spools and buttons and beads and shells to play with ; 

A big bag with a stout draw-string for him to open, and shut 
and fill with dried beans and peas, or spools or bits of bright- 
colored cloth ; 

Little bags with an assortment of things ; 

Stout old pickle-bottles with such things as beans within, to 
shake up and down ; 

An old newspaper, some paste made thin and some pictures 
to daub on the back with a big brush. 

Some suggestions as to the directing of the destructive ten- 
dencies in children which are really the outgrowth of tHiis ex- 
perimental sense are : 

Give them paper to tear up and muss, pieces of cloth to cut 
up, something soft to be picked to pieces, spools of string; give 
them toys which are intended to be taken apart and put together, 
like nests of boxes, big Hailman wooden beads for stringing on 
shoe laces, a peg-board, a box of big blocks, some of the Mon- 
tessori apparatus. 

The subject of play is treated thoroughly in other pamphlet 
chapters of this Survey. 



IS 



The Training of Attention. 

Of all the faculties of the mind this is the most important one 
for development at this period. There is a current story about 
a farmer who was asked why he furnished his hens food in such 
unmanageable sizes. His cogent answer was, "What is time to a 
hen?" A good many people seem to be thinking, What is time 
to a child? and feel that they have a perfect right to interrupt a 
child at any moment and for any purpose. Aside from the laudable 
irritation which the child feels, we are doing a serious harm to his 
limited powers of consecutive attention. It ought to be a rule, too, of 
the nursery that every game should be played for a sufficient length 
of time before the child is allowed to leave it for another. It 
is, for example, difficult for a little child who has chosen a puzzle 
not to leave it for his sister's picture-book which mother is explaining, 
but the puzzle must be finished before he may come and enjoy the 
pictures. Such rules are no hardship if they have always been a matter 
of course, and when school begins the value of this training is 
apparent. 

A very frequent reason why children do not obey is that they 
do not attend, and so do not hear a command. Any request we 
make should be made in such a way as to dislodge everything else 
from the consciousness while we are speaking. To this end, it is 
well never to give an order until the child looks us squarely in the 
face and only while he is thus looking attentively at us. Such a 
habit is as good drill for attention as it is for obedience. 

The Training of Memory. 

Not until the second year does the child begin to recall events 
in the past and these only in spots. It is our duty to develop this 
power of recollection by frequently asking the child to recall first the 
events of the day and then those of the past week and the more 
significant ones of the distant past. In telling stories we should use 
words which express in sound the actual movements and sounds 
which the child hears and sees, using the same words over and over 
again, thus helping recollection by the uniformity of our phraseology. 
As to the first contact with literature, Mrs. Wood- Allen suggests : 

"Have in the house any (or all) of the good collections of verse 
for children. Read or repeat poems to the child. What he enjoys he 
will ask to hear again. Do not be afraid of what seems 'too old,' 
unless it has in it something to frighten or burden a child. Repeat a 
favorite often, and as soon as he shows a power to repeat any part 
of it himself, be pleased. Do not insist on the learning. Merely 
admire." 

We sometimes wonder why our children remember things so 
much better than, they do duties. Mrs. Mumford gives the explana- 
tion. "Neville learns his dates or his multiplication table by con- 
stant repetition, until the more or less interesting details are firmly 
impressed upon his mind. Yet every day, and at every meal, re- 
peatedly we have to tell him to keep his arms off the table, and he 

19 



always forgets ! Where is the difference ? Memory is, as I have 
said, improved by repetition, but only when other things are equal ; 
and in daily life we forget that other things are not equal. If Neville 
paid as little attention to the repetition of his dates as to the details 
of his behavior at meals, then they would never be learnt. Interest 
and attention must be combined with the process of repetition ; the 
child must put himself into whatever he is doing, and not merely listen 
or repeat mechanically. How can we make use of this psychological 
fact? Instead of constantly telling Neville to put his arms down 
and nothing more, suppose we drill him in the right action, 'Arms on 
the table, arms off!' — *On, off — on, off' briskly, six times, while 
he suits the action to the words, and gives for the time his whole 
attention to the arm exercise. Then, reminding him that if he forgets 
again he will suffer some slight punishment to meet the case, we make 
repetition effective because no longer mechanical." 

Teaching to Talk 

By this time the child becomes awake to every word spoken. 
While he himself is capable only of uttering the names of those in 
the house and of a few familiar objects, he is nevertheless storing up 
in his memory many others which he is preparing to utter as soon 
as his lips can frame them. The pedagogy of teaching a child to talk, 
like the pedagogy of anything else, consists largely in discovering what 
the motives are that make children wish to talk. They appear to be 
three. There is the desire to give pleasure, which he notes is possible 
as soon as he makes his first sounds in the presence of his fond 
parents ; there is the instinct to imitate, and there is the wish to gain 
what comes from being able to ask for it. We may use all these 
motives. We should always express pride and affection at the 
earliest essays of speech. We should give him models to imitate as 
we teach him the names of familiar objects, give him books with 
familiar objects portrayed in strong outlines and with names attached, 
and answer his constant questions in as simple a way as possible and 
in short, concise sentences which he can repeat after us. If he asks 
over and over again and want the same answer over aiid over again, 
it is to help his memory. This is the way he gains the actual practice 
in word-using and sentence-building which will make his vocabulary. 
We may call upon his desire for getting things by asking for them by 
refusing to understand him when he gestures instead of speaking and 
only when he expresses his wants clearly. 

The art of speech is really a tremendous one. The task which 
is before the child from the days of "the primordial squall" to intel- 
ligent speech, is stated by David R. Major as follows: "After the 
child once begins to combine words into sentences, the essential ad- 
ditional things which must be mastered before he can speak even 
plain English, are: (1) he must learn to use just the right number 
of words, enough, but not too many; (2) he must master the con- 
ventional order of words in the English sentence; (3) the intricacies 
of English inflection must be learned; (4) he must have regard for 
the distinctions in the meanings of pronominal forms, particularly, 

20 



the personal pronouns, which give the most trouble, as a rule; (5) he 
must learn to say 'No' in such a way that his meaning will not be 
mistaken; (6) he must master the formula for questions; and lastly, 
and perhaps the most difficult of all, (7) his knowledge of the mean- 
ings of the words he uses must grow more exact." 

One begins to realize that, charming though it is, the use or 
encouragement of "baby talk" with a child who has such a serious 
task as trying to speak our complicated language, is to do him an 
injustice by teaching him much which we shall soon be diligently 
wishing him to unlearn. 

If you want your child to use more than one kind of speech, why 
not consider the possibilities of some mastery of a foreign tongue? 
Mrs. Annie Winsor Allen says : "Children find one sound as good 
as another to represent an object. They quickly learn to understand 
one another's baby talk and special words. So the notion of a foreign 
language is easy to them. One word is as sensible as another to 
learn, and several w^ords for the same thing do not seem out of the 
way. Is not a dish called also a plate, a saucer, a bowl, and what not? 
Say phrases, sentences and little jingles to him in foreign languages. 
When he begins to pick up English jingles, give him a chance to 
learn French and German jingles, too. Have at least one picture-book 
with jingles and counting, etc., in French, and one in German. Read 
them often, and explain them as you do the English ones. A single 
book or two of this sort, well selected, will give a child as useful a 
vocabulary and as much grammar as he would get at the same age 
from a foreign nurse." 

Teaching Hand Activities. 

The constant tendency of young children to use their muscles 
is sometimes classed as a special muscular sense and sometimes as 
an instinct. Whatever it be called, this impulse for muscular move- 
ment must be met intelligently and gratified for its necessity. There 
is a legitimate reason for movement-play, for a delight in the activity 
itself, such as running, jumping, climbing, trotting about, shouting 
and mussing things, rubbing, nodding the head, prattling, dropping 
things, stamping the feet, turning over things, pounding things, rattling, 
shaking, pouring, dancing the feet, shaking the whole body, etc. These 
seemingly useless constant movements are part of the child and are ex- 
ercises of all his doing powers which help get his apparatus into trim for 
perfect co-ordination and the unconscious mechanism of all his muscu- 
lar acitvity. This ceaseless energy should be allowed free outlet daily 
and as far as possible without interference. Also should it be remem- 
bered that, hand in hand with this form of exercise, in accordance with 
the needs of his nature, must go the recognition of the fact that it is 
freedom under law and that while there is a time to play and make a 
noise, there is also a time to stop the noise and play or work quietly. 
Some simple suggestions as to material and ways to give the child his 
freedom in the exercise of his muscles and the training of his hands are 
these : 

21 



Under supervision, for a little while each day, help the little child 
to do the things he tries to do ; let him climb up and down stairs ; help 
him on a ladder ; let him climb on and off a chair ; let him run up and 
down a little hill ; catch him in the arms and lift him high as an end of 
the game. 

Give a child old papers to tear up in little pieces, stuff an old bag 
full with them, and then let him punch this bag or toss it about. 

Give the child blunt scissors and let him cut up slips of paper. 

Let him jump on the springs of the bed once in a while. 

Give him a big, soft ball to toss about. 

Throw stones in the water with him. 

Give him a sand pile and some cups and let him pour sand from 
one cup to another. 

Give him a pan of beans, (as soon as he is old enough to keep 
them out of his mouth) and let him pour them in and out of the cup 
and muss them in his hand. 

Let him have a big punching bag to punch and watch swinging 
back and forth. 

Give him a football to kick about. 

Give him) room to run and a time in which to run, jump and 
shout freely. 

Let him roll on the floor or on the grass. 

Turn to Maud Burnham's "Rhymes for Little Hands," Poulsson's 
"Father and Baby Plays" and Wells' "Floor Games" for further sug- 
gestions in this direction. These are all described in the list below. 

Moral Training 

The limitations of a child up to three or four years old are ethi- 
cally and mentally so great as to be almost beyond our understanding. 
We cannot get down low enough to believe in them, and the result is 
that the child is often treated in a wrong and unwise way. The basis 
of good morals is good habits. 

Let there be regularity in meals, going to bed, getting up, etc. 
Let there be order in picking up things and putting them away after 
playing. A good suggestion for this is a big box with a cover or a low 
shelf where the baby may pile things up. A child should be taught 
early to restrain certain impulses like crying and anger, the natural 
processes of nature, through regularity, and at the same time gradually 
learn to wait for a few minutes for something he wants. Especially 
must the habit of silence at proper times be cultivated in a little child, 
not only that he may not disturb others, but that he may not miss 
some experience or opportunity to learn himself. 

"Moral training in childhood," says a recent writer, "must be 
mainly a matter of stocking up the lower nerve centers with good 
reflexes ; that is, habits. The first of all these habits in importance is 
absolute, unquestioning obedience to father, mother, nurse, teacher, 
the laws. When the baby reaches for articles on the table and the 
parent says 'No! No!' that should be as final as the later recognition 
of a law of nature. Learning to eat without spilling his food on the 
table or on himself is a great moral achievement for a child. Learning 
to attend to excretions and keep his nose clean is a great step in moral 



and social progress. Learning to dress one's self, buttoning clothes 
and tying shoe strings, marks still further stages in moral growth." 
Lady Isabel Margesson emphasizes the moral value of habitual 
obedience still further : 'There is one virtue that is eminently the 
virtue of infancy and in which 'all the laws and commandments' for 
that age may be summed up, that is 'obedience.' 'What mother says, 
you must do.' 'Do what I say.' 'Mother knows best.' Anybody who 
has closely watched and studied an infant can see that 'obedience' 
is an idea, a conception, that can be taught and understood even in 
the first year. The very helplessness and dependence of the young 
creature inclines him to obey from instinct, and if this natural inclination 
is fostered and trained, obedience will be a virtue that is within the 
child's power, and one which will have for it a distinct meaning. To 
insure this important factor in obedience, that is to say, that the child 
should have a distinct mental picture of obedience as such, it is neces- 
sary to repeat many times and in many different ways and forms, 
expressions about obedience — in fact to take pains to build up in the 
child's mind the absolute necessity for doing what it is told. There 
must be no relaxing when once an order is given — no weakening after- 
ward — and there should be in very early days a bodily penalty for 
disobedience." Concerning this habit of obedience, which Dr. G. 
Stanley Hall says should be "an instinct, if not a religion," Mr. Spiller 
speaks as follows : "Ask little of the child, see that what you ask is 
defensible ; state clearly and in a word or two your reasons ; and 
good-naturedly insist on being obeyed — without scolding, argumenta- 
tion, raising the voice, entreating or punishing. Argumentation, how- 
ever slight, feeds and creates disobedience and bad temper. If you say 
you will do a thing, do it at once, and do not repeat what you have 
said. Let the healthy child over eighteen months old be quietly 
allowed to cry two or three times till it is tired of crying, and crying 
will seldom be resorted to under similar circumstances." 

Mothers are often heard to say of a two-year-old child : "I sup- 
pose I must teach him to obey soon." Do they not realize that a 
child is old enough to obey as soon as he is old enough to disobey? 
It is, in truth, a great responsibility that we take in dominating another 
life, even a little one, and it is a responsibility which we should covet 
to wield only when we are ourselves at our best. But it is one that 
goes with at least the first years of childhood. Before the child is 
capable of rational thought, there is no use arguing with him and there 
is no safety for him unless he does as he is told. 

An English mother has written recently with wisdom concerning 
the technique of securing obedience during these first years. She says : 
"The first lessons in Obedience should begin at five or six months, 
for I believe that there is great value in beginning this before the 
child's mind is quick to resent interference. Up to crawling days 
the child has no choice of will, he can only take what is given to him, 
and lie where he is put. But as soon as his body is capable of respond- 
ing to his will, acquisitiveness begins, and if 'No' has been learned, 
the mother's and nurse's task is far easier and the child's life happier. 
Teaching 'No' is a very simple matter : I begin it by giving the child 
something that he may touch, but not suck ; as the little hand puts it 
up to his mouth, I take it down with 'No.' He is satisfied for a 



moment, then tries again, and again the Httle hand is gently taken 
down with 'No.' After two or three repetitions the trinket is re- 
moved and one that may be sucked substituted. The lesson should 
be repeated a few times daily, with the same trinket, and very soon 
the child will understand the difference between the forbidden toy 
and the things that he may suck. As soon as he crawls, the next 
step in obedience should be taught by the word 'Come' ; and the 
important point is that once the word is said to him, he must come, 
though at first he has to be brought. These steps soon lead to the 
habit of obedience, if those who teach are careful to be consistent ; but 
if we allow occasional lapses, we make it so much harder for the chil- 
dren afterwards. As soon as a child can understand an order, he is 
old enough to obey it, and since the infringement of a command must 
never be permitted, how careful we must be to command only where 
we want and expect obedience." 

The importance of securing unquestioning obedience early is that 
it saves so many difficulties later. Mrs. Mumford has an ingenious 
chart in which she represents the various obstinacies and excuses and 
subterfuges of the child who has not been trained to obey as a series 
of hurdles which stand between the point where the command was 
given and the end of the course where it was finally obeyed. She 
then represents by a shorter and straighter course, without obstacles, 
the pathway from the command through attention to the instant 
obedient reaction. There are emergencies where such promptness may 
save life, and it always saves strength to the mother and character 
and loyalty to the child. 

Before leaving this subject, concerning which another pamphlet 
chapter of this survey ("The Government of Young Children") speaks 
in greater fullness, let us remind ourselves that even the young 
child, though he knows nothing of absolute truth, justice or virtue, is 
yet not entirely without insights which support our parental and con- 
crete truth, justice and virtue. "The various stimuli of discipline," 
as Dr. G. Stanley Hall wisely says, "are to enforce the higher though 
weaker insights which the child has already unfolded, rather than to 
graft entirely unintuited good. The command must find some ally, 
feeble though it be, in the child's own soul." That such alliance may 
exist is a source of comfort to the fallible mother who tries to be fair 
and wise and kind and firm. 

A word must be said about will-training, for even infancy is not 
too early to begin this which is the most important and permanent of 
all kinds of education. The roots of will development are in obedience. 
There is an obedience which is conformity and there is an obedience 
which is self-control. The former is entirely forced, the latter is 
voluntary. Sometimes the former is necessary, but the latter is the 
more desirable. Even when we give commands to a young child we 
do not always have to use force to get them obeyed. The child soon 
learns to inhibit, to stop himself. At first he does this reluctantly and 
only when we are present. By and by he does so more easily and 
even when we are absent. When a child is able to restrain his own 
acts he is beginning to show will power, and the more regularly he 
does so the more adept he becomes in self-mastery. A writer in the 
Foundation Library illustrates the process by the story of two small 

24 



boys, who saw some flowers in a yard. One ran in and stole some, 
and the other refrained. The one who yielded thought how easily 
he could get them, and while he remembered how wrong he had been 
told such conduct was, he also recalled that no special harm had come 
to him before, and his imagination of what he might do with them 
seized him and he rushed off with them. The other boy saw the 
same flowers, he too thought how easily he could get them; but when 
he thought of the wrong he would do there came into his mind the 
many stories his parents had told him about the meanness and shame 
and ruin of thievery, and he also thought how bravely he had resisted 
once before and how glad he was, and so he went straight away and 
thought no more about them. You see, his parents had filled his mind 
and heart with a stock of good ideas that would come up in time to 
help in his will. 

"The one boy and his parents had taken advantage of the laws 
of mental life and had built up in him strong and helpful groups of 
ideas that would help his will to do right. The other boy had by 
his habits of acting and thinking built up groups of ideas and so 
associated them that they hindered his will when he tried to do right, 
and helped even to weaken the effort of the will itself." Since all 
ideas that enter into the mind tend to go at once into action, to express 
themselves, the more right ideas, habits of right action and right 
desires we can establish the more we strengthen the will to select from 
among all possible ideas those which represent the will to righteousness. 

The Importance of Home Education 

It would seem impossible to exaggerate the importance of home 
•education during the years between one and four. "The importance 
of what is learned in the ordinary home," says Kirkpatrick, "is sug- 
gested by the following notes taken from Miss Munro's account of a 
child taken from an institution at three years of age. She could 
talk very little, but could understand a number of words. The attend- 
ant had no time to talk with her, but only to tell her what to do. She 
had no idea of family relations, 'mamma' meaning any of the nurses. 
Little had happened to her, except to be fed, washed and dressed, and 
she had no idea of the individual ownership of anything, not even of 
clothes. The most she knew was how to care for babies, learned by 
seeing and imitating the nurses. She had no idea of a doll, dog, cat 
or pictures and did not know she could not walk on water. She knew 
nothing of colors and could not learn to discriminate and match them 
for a long time. She used the sense of touch a great deal. She dis- 
tinguished very imperfectly between imaginings and real experiences. 
She was a bright child, but knew so little that the family concluded 
that children in a home must learn more in the first three years than 
in any other period of the same length. This is, therefore, pre- 
eminently the period in which the moulding influences of the home 
have most complete sway." 

Another reason why training by the parents is essential is 
because the child himself is so ductile. Says Mr. Spiller: 

"You can make it do what you like ; you can place it under such 

25 



conditions as you favor ; you can give it such treatment as you con- 
sider advisable. Within very restricted Hmits your child can do 
nothing to checkmate you. Its memory is weak ; it bears consequently 
no grudge ; and it can neither divine your plots nor can it counterplot. 
Hence, given that you know what you want to do and intend to do, and 
given that you may proceed intelligently, your child's very helplessness 
may be of assistance to you." And not only may we put in what we 
like, but what we put in remains. A father who had just been told 
the news of the birth of his first child says: "I never before knew 
responsibility as in that hour. I went into the library and stood at the 
v/indow. Across the street, where a new building was being erected, 
some mistake had been made and workmen were tearing down a part 
of the wall. 'You workers with material things,' I thought, 'can tear 
down the faulty construction, but can I do that with this new life I am 
to help build?' 'No,' I replied to my query, 'whatever goes into this 
young life goes there to stay.' " 

The writer wishes to make a special claim for the value of fathers 
as parents. The father is really an ideal person to be a parent! So 
many mothers insistently monopolize the training of their little chil- 
dren and so many fathers are content to have them do so that a great 
many babies are being brought up practically as half orphans. The 
intention is that a father should be a practicing and not merely a con- 
sulting parent. There are at least some things which he can do better 
than a mother. His ideas as to a pungent course of bodily training for 
making an athletic boy or girl, his ingenuity in arranging the playroom 
or copying the Montessori apparatus or adding inexpensive devices, 
his novel experiments in play and handicraft with the children and 
his general freshness of approach when he enters the nursery make 
him a valuable coadjutor in the home school. Needless to add, if 
there is to be a life-plan, both parents must agree to it; and both 
cannot be teachers of the same child unless they are united on the 
same scheme of training. 

Summary 

We may summarize by saying that the little child has seven main 
needs which nobody outside his home can supply. They are : 

(1) Food for the hungry senses — sight, hearing, taste, touch, 
smell. 

(2) Means for legitimate exercise of muscles — in the motor 
development, that is taking place. 

(3) Right environment and right models for imitation. 

(4) Large opportunity for free experimentation with many 
objects in his environment. 

(5) Large opportunity for communication and expression on 
a part of the child in forming the vocabulary. 

(6) Large opportunity for wholesome development of imagi- 
nation. 

(7) Right beginnings in habit-formation — laying foundation of 
right habituation, in politeness, care of things, putting away, inhibi- 
tion of crying, fussing, crossness, etc. 

26 




REFERENCES. 

Note: Any book mentioned in these monographs will be freely loaned 
to any member of the Institute upon request. They may also be purchased, 
if desired. The principal sources of this monograph are as follows: 

The Training of the Child, iOO pp., by G. Spiller, published by the Dodge 
Publishing Company, New York. 

A most useful and sensible little book upon its subject. It is full 
of practical suggestions arranged in tabulated or easily remembered 
paragraphs. 

Our Boy, 126 pp., by Harry Edwards Bartow, published by the Union Press, 
Philadelphia. 

A small but adequate handbook on child-training, written from a 
father's standpoint. It is the only parents' book of which we know in 
which the various periods of child life are taken up in direct and 
definite order. 

Making the Best of Our Children, First Series, 254 pp., by Mary Wood-Allen, 
published by A. C. McClurg Company, Chicago. 

The strong point about Mrs. Wood-Allen's book is that it deals 
entirely with concrete instances. In the early portion of this volume, 
several examples of practical difficulties with young children are cited, 
and two parallel anecdotes are given, one showing the wrong and the 
other the right way of dealing with the case. 

The Dawn of Character, 225 pp., by Edith E. Read Mumford, published by 
Longmans, Green & Co. New York. 

Mrs. Mumford approaches child study from the standpoint of 
psychology. Her chapters upon the growth of imagination, the law 
of habit, the growth of habits and the training of the will are particu- 
larly helpful. There is also an appendix giving practical suggestions 
upon teaching the young child voluntary control of the physical func- 
tions. 

A MoNTEssoRi Mother, 246 pp., by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, published by Henry 
Holt & Co., New York. 

The most helpful for the average mother of all the books on the 
Montessori system. Mrs. Fisher shows how it is possible to use the 
Montessori devices in the nursery. 

The Home-Made Kindergarten, 117 pp., by Nora Archibald Smith, published 
by Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston. 

Miss Smith shows how it is possible for the mother who does 
not have access to a kindergarten to give her child the benefit of the 
best the kindergarten has to offer. 

Growth and Education, 294 pp., by John Mason Tyler, published by the 
Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston. 

This is not a text-book of hygiene, but a helpful book emphasizing 
the importance of normal physical growth throughout childhood and 
youth. For the purposes of the young mother the chapter upon the first 
three years of the child's life is especially helpful. 

The Moral Life, 600 pp.. being volume nine of the Foundation Library, pub- 
lished by the Educational Society, New York. 

This volume of a subscription book series of eleven volumes is 
edited by G. Stanley Hall. It contains valuable chapters upon habits, 
will and character training. 



X 



022 158 677 3 



Play and Playgrounds, 27 pp., by Joseph Lee, published by the Playground and 
Recreation Association of America, New York. 

This pamphlet, written in Mr. Lee's charming style, is the most 
fruitful publication of its size upon its theme. It discusses play in all 
its aspects and makes helpful suggestions both for the home and the 
public playground. 

The Montessori Method, Zll pp., by Maria Montessori, published by Frederick 
A. Stokes & Co., New York. 

The special value for mothers of this description of Madame 
Montessori's House of Childhood by its originator is in the twelfth to 
the fourteenth chapters, where she describes her methods for training 
the senses. 

Rhymes for Little Hands, 155 pp., by Maud Burnham, published by Milton 
Bradley Company, Springfield, Mass. 

The best book of finger plays. Each movement is illustrated by 
a winsome photograph of the hands of a little child. 

Father and Baby Plays. 98 pp., by Emilie Poulsson, published by The Century 
Company, New York. 

A charming little book suggesting all sorts of active sports to be 
played by fathers and mothers with their babies. 

Songs and Music of Froebel's Mother Plays, 272 pp., by Susan E. Blow, pub- 
lished by D. Appleton & Co., New York. 

The quaint and charming verses and simple music of the original 
Froebel plays, with English translations and suggestions for use in the 
nursery and kindergarten. 

Floor Games, 94 pp., by H. G. Wells, published by Small, Maynard & Co., 
New York. 

An attractive description by the well-known novelist of games to 
be played upon the floor by father and child, using blocks, toy soldiers, 
Noah's Ark and miscellaneous objects. Not adapted to children under 
three. 



28 



n ^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



022 158 677 3 



Hollinger Corp. 

pH 8.5 



